Meet Brian Haas — 2016 Veteran
Brian Haas was born in Houston, Texas in July, 1973. He joined the Army in May, 1996, a few years after graduating high school. After spending three years enlisted as a 77F (refueler), Brian submitted his application for flight school and got selected. After earning his wings, Brian chose to fly the AH-64D Apache Longbow as his advanced aircraft. Brian has since spent the last 16 years as a pilot (PI) and maintenance test pilot (MTP). He is married to his best friend, Jolyne, and they have three kids between them: Christopher, Taylor, and Connor.
Upon completion of flight school in 2000, Brian moved to Fort Hood, Texas where he went through the Unit Fielding and Training Program with 1-2 Attack Aviation Battalion. In September 2001 he moved with the unit to Camp Page, Korea, the first forward deployed Longbow battalion for the Army. He progressed there primarily as a front seat co-pilot/gunner before moving back to the States and back to Fort Hood, this time with 1-227 Aviation Regiment with the 1st Cavalry Division.
In February of 2003 he deployed with 1-227 to Kuwait in order to prepare for a possible invasion of Iraq. On March 23, 2003 they jumped the berm into Iraq, and made camp at TAA Rams. In July of 2003 they returned home to Fort Hood to await their next deployment with the rest of the division.
From 2004-2005 Brian deployed with B Company (Reapers), 1-227 of 1st Cav to Camp Taji, Iraq. During his 15 months there, which included "the surge", Brian flew almost every night, and his company took part in multiple firefights each week, and included the Sadr City Uprising, Fallujah, and An Najaf. He flew as a co-pilot/gunner (CPG), PI, and Air Mission Commander (AMC), the majority of his time spent over Baghdad and the surrounding area. Most nights consisted of convoy security, route security, planned attacks, and screens during movements to contact. Due to his knowledge of the capabilities of the aircraft and the fight they were in, Brian spent time at various FOBs as a liaison to the ground brigaded, to include FOB Warhorse and FOB Duke. While at Warhorse, he was within four feet of an incoming mortar round. Luckily, Brian was just knocked as he was pushed to the ground onto his back, but suffered a mild TBI.
In 2006-2007 the Reapers and 1-227 deployed again to Camp Taji, Iraq, but for a 12 month deployment this time. Brian was again flying almost every night, and usually as the senior aviator on his team. As a pilot-in-command and AMC, he was tasked with providing security throughout the Baghdad area of operations with his team. Brian was always trying to teach what he had learned through his experiences, mentor young crew chiefs and aviators, and was a primary trainer for night flying and night attack operations.
From 2009-2010 he was deployed again to Camp Taji for a 12 month rotation. Brian was now trained as a maintenance test pilot, and spent his time either flying missions in the Baghdad AO or working on and flying maintenance test flights to ensure the flight worthiness of 24 aircraft. During this time, Brian and the other MTPs worked every day to ensure the flow of flyable aircraft to support the fight throughout the theater.
Brian moved to Fort Rucker Alabama where he served with the Directorate of Training and Doctrine after getting back from Iraq in 2010 until 2012. Here Brian served as the subject matter expert for attack operations and aviation maintenance operations for the aviation branch. This included reviewing all new doctrine from all the different branches in the Army to include joint operations. He was a primary advisor for the Attack Operations portions of the new Doctrine 2015 and was project manager for the Aviation Maintenance Sustainment doctrine. While at Fort Rucker Brian was diagnosed with and started treatment for PTSD from some of the memories of different events while in Iraq over the last four deployments.
After two years Brian moved on to the next deploying unit, this time to 10th Mountain Division in Watertown, NY. Brian was assigned as the Quality Control Officer, and was at one point during the upcoming deployment, responsible for the proper maintenance and records of up to 73 aircraft. Being the senior Apache aviator and the senior MTP in the Task Force, Brian brought four deployments of experience and training to bear while helping prepare his task force for the nine month deployment to FOB Shank, Afghanistan. He believed in leading from the front, if not flying mission, then out on the flight line assisting with work on the aircraft, flying maintenance test flights, and ensuring the records were getting completed to standard as maintenance was completed.
In July of 2013 Brian was taking off from FOB Ghazni when the wind changed directions during his takeoff. With the limited power available at 7,500 feet and fully loaded with gas and armament, this change of wind direction left him with no other choice than abort his aircraft. The choices left him with a line of Hesco barriers in front of him, a road on the other side of those, and a row of T-walls on the other side. Brian was able to keep enough power available to have a controlled crash in the one spot that did not put the aircraft on moving vehicles, tents with Soldiers inside, or on the laundry point.
This landing damaged the aircraft severely. It turns out Brian's previous back issues (from the number of hours he had accumlated in the aircraft) were made worse, cracking two discs in his lower back. He flew for another four months before the flight surgeon grounded him and made the decision to evacuate him because of his back, as he was not able to stand upright, bend over to get anything off of the ground, or climb around the aircraft without being in extreme pain. Brian was also in close vicinity (less than six feet) of the impact of two 107mm rockets that caused more TBI issues. His trek took him from Shank, through Bagram, to Landstuhl, Germany. From there, it was decided he would go to Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland.
At Walter Reed, Brian started physical therapy which did enable him to be able to stand and walk straight up most of the time. Through the many different injections, ablations, dry needling, more injections, a discogram, and an Intradiscal Electrothermal Annulopasty, Brian has been at the hospital with minimal success. The pain has not subsided at all from the cracked discs. He is now looking at the next step which will be a lumbar fusion and which will further diminish his mobility when it comes to twisting, lifting, and bending over to pick things up. He has undergone more treatment for the issues with PTSD and TBI, which include memory problems, diminished and slower recollection of his vocabulary, and issues with crowds of people or being around unknown people.
Through his five deployments, Brian has been awarded multiple Army Commendation Medals, Air Medals, Air Medals for Valor, and the Bronze Star. He is now over 19 years in service, and looking forward to retirement from the Army. Brian enjoys getting out as he is able to relax while watching baseball (Nationals and Astros), fishing, hunting, and being at home with his family and working on their cars as much as possible. Upon retirement, Brian and Jolyne plan on splitting their time living between Texas and Ohio until Connor graduates high school in 2019. That is when they plan to set out in an RV across the country visiting all of the major league baseball stadiums, watching Nationals and Astros Spring Training baseball in Florida, and adding to their "must see" bucket list.
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Jeff Anderson
CEO/Founder, Rebuilding Warriors
